Chapter 64 : : Autumn Berry Mountain

Kale erased his traces and buried the pieces of skin under the ground, he then packed his bag and walked out of the cave.

When he came out, blinding sunlight assaulted his eyes, Kale had to cover his eyes with his hand to provide them time to adjust to the intensity of light.

Suddenly, his ears twitched.

'Wood Hammer'

Greenlight covered his hand, his soft skin immediately became tougher as wood, Kale waved his hand and struck the object charging at him from the side.

The projectile was hit hard and crashed into hard rock, Kale turned to look and saw that it was a big brown fog but due to the impact, it's body was half crushed and it died.

'Mountain Toxin Frog? Trying to eat more than it can chew, it is as reckless as the rumours say,' Kale snorted, he walked to the frog's body and squatted down on his knees.

A thought flashed in his mind.

'My current physique should be similar to a Martial Master of Kazeer because the human here have strong bodies, to begin with, and my soul is also quite strong so I should be scarcely able to use that…' Kale touched his chin as he thought, he made up his mind, he first used ‹Life Sense› to check if there was anyone around him, then reached out his hand above the frog's corpse.

At first, nothing happened, Kale frowned, he exerted more efforts to the point that veins popped out on his forehead.

Eventually, a change occurred, the blood around the frog dried, it's flesh began to lose vitality, a pungent smell spread, in a few seconds, it began to rot, it was like someone had accelerated the time flow around the frog's body and as a result, it was being decomposed at a visible speed.

The frog's body rotted to an extent where its bones became visible, by the end, several, wisps of grey smoke came out of its body, they combined to form a small smoke cloud then floated above the rotten corpse.

Kale raised his hand, the grey smoke responded to him, it took the shape of a rope and moved in waves like a snake as it approached him, it then swirled around his hand like a circular ring.

Kale waved his hand towards a tree in front, the ring was shot out and landed on a branch.

'Grey Plague Assimilation'

The grey smoke ring deformed and engulfed the lush green leaves around it.

Immediately, the green lives filled with vitality turned yellow then grey, in the end, they lost the last bit of vitality in them and fell off the tree, contrary to them, the grey smoke rose in quantity and expended to the other parts of the tree.

Kale observed for a moment and sighed in disappointment, he snapped his fingers and the grey smoke stopped spreading, it shrunk then disappeared on its own.

'Sigh… To think even my signature killer moves fell to such a level, it's basically useless in battle, especially when it is already an unorthodox technique, the orthodox ones are more useless,' Kale rubbed his forehead, he took out the map from his bag and checked it.

It was the map of territory around Carran Town, after analyzing it for a while, he chose a direction and left.

***

Carran Town is surrounded by lush green forest that includes several mountains that are fit for agriculture and the local beasts around aren't that dangerous.

Due to that, many villages and tribes live in those mountains, they cultivate herbs, fruits and vegetables for their living and trade them into Carran Town for other resources.

As a matter of fact, many adventurers in the guild were former residents of those villages and tribes.

If the people living in those villages and tribes have any trouble, they place it as the mission in the guild, although they are not able to set big prices but due to many adventurers being their former residents, they accept those missions when they have time to solve their problem.

A few days ago, one such mission appeared in the guild, it was a mission regarding bandit extermination, a new bandit group had appeared in the region and was harassing the villagers around.

The bandit group was newly formed so it didn't have any name and was very weak, although it was laying low in the last few weeks, the villagers were smart enough to post the mission early so that it gets exterminated before it becomes a serious problem.

Furthermore, if they post a mission for a weak bandit group, they would have to pay less and the chances of it being accepted would increase. It wasn't easy for the villagers to earn money so the fee they were paying was low, but they believe that someone will eventually do it due to their goodwill.

But it was still not easy for the normal adventurer to accept because firstly it was an Iron Rank mission, and most adventurers at this stage were young, they could fight and kill monsters and beasts, but was it the same for humans?

Adventurer's also had to think about the views of their team members before tacking a mission, they couldn't take the mission due to their selfishness, and such reward cannot attract everyone.

***

At night…

Autumn Berry Mountain, bandit hideout.

The terrain of the mountain was mostly barren, the only thing that grew on it were those Autumn Berry Shrubs that resulted in its name. Due to an abandoned iron mine of the past, the bandits turned this place into their hideout.

Two men wearing dishevelled attire were patrolling down the mountain, one had a bottle of alcohol in his hand while the other was carrying a spear on his shoulder as he lazily checked his surrounding.

"Stop drinking we are on patrol, if the boss finds out, we will be in trouble," The man caring the spear pursued.

"Humph, What boss? That's scared pussy? Hicc~ we haven't done anything this whole week just Hicc~ because a mission regarding us was posted in the guild, Hicc~ and it was just an Iron Rank mission at that, Hicc~ if he is that scared then he should just change the location of our hideout," The drunken bandit said while trying to suppress his hiccups. He then rubbed his neck and scowled in dissatisfaction "Ouch, these fukking mosquitos, they are drinking their father's blood, shitheads…"

"Mosquitos? I don't see any, hey what is that on your neck," The man curiously extended his hand and took out a small thorn-like needle from his partner's neck "This is?"

Thump…

The man with the spear raised his head and saw that his drunken partner fell to the ground and started snoring loudly, he suddenly came to awareness but just when he was about to shout, he noticed a black thread reflecting moonlight falling down on his face and reaching his neck.

The second the thread touched his skin, it tightened around his neck, and pulled him up.

"Ughh…" The bandits reacted, he tried to loosen the thread with his hands and shout but it was already too late, the thread was thin yet strong which made it more dangerous, it was like a blade that was slowly slicing his neck with the help of gravity working against him.

If it was a rope, he might have used his spear to blindly attack upside but it was a thread sharp as a blade's edge.

The bandit was hanged several centimetres above the ground, blood flower through his half sliced neck and slid down his body, his eyes rolled upwards, he was dead!

Kale hiding above the tree loosened his grip, the thread slid down through the branches and the bandit fell down to the ground albeit lifeless.

Both the bandits were below Level 10, that's why the question for him wasn't about how to kill them but how to kill them without making any noise.

"Go, have your meal," Kale muttered softly, the pill hanging on his neck with a thread reacted, the Ghost Lady came out from it and dived into the body of the dead bandit.

The bandit's body twitched once before becoming motionless again. The figure of Ghost Lady then shot out from the dead bandit and dived into the sleeping bandit.

The bandit's body trembled, he raised his head and opened his eyes, but his eyes were is disproportion, his hand moved as he tried to stand up but fell down halfway.

The bandit tried to stand again and fell, it kept trying again and again.

Kale calmly observed everything from above 'A normal ghost can't kill a living person directly but she isn't that normal, and tacking minor control shouldn't be an issue, she lacks practice,'

After several tries, the bandit managed to stand up and slowly walk around, but rather than a normal person, it looked like a zombie was walking around.

"It will do, now do as I say, hmm.. wait for a second," Kale said after he finished tacking care of the dead body. He took out his handkerchief, dipped it into the alcohol left into the broken glass bottle, then rubbed it all over the clothes of the bandit "Now you are done,"

The smell of alcohol covered his whole body, he seemed like he was drunk to the limit.

A few minutes later, another place in the mountain.

Three bone fires were lit up, three big metallic pot were hanging above them, one fat man was putting chopped vegetables into the pot while another tall man was stirring the soup using a dipper.

Suddenly they heard a rustling sound coming from the bushes and turned back, they saw a familiar man approaching them, he was dragging a bag behind his back, although he was walking like a zombie, in their eyes, he just looked overly drunk because of the intense smell of alcohol on his body.

"Weren't you send for patrol with Mak? Why are you fooling around here?" The tall man said in dissatisfaction.

The man gave a disgusting giggle then raised the bag he was carrying towards him.

The fat man frowned but he quietly took the bag because of a peculiar smell coming from it, he checked the content and was delighted "Three rabbits? It's meat, did you catch them?"

The drunken man laughed and shook his head, before the fat man could ask more, he fell to the ground and started snoring.

The tall man also came forward "It was probably Mak, he should have sent him back because of his drunken state, I will also feel troubled if I have to carry someone to the top of the mountain while also bringing three rabbits, he should be on patrol right now," He didn't hide his dissatisfaction towards the drunken man as he spoke.

The fat man nodded "But it is still a surprise that they were able to catch three rabbits at night on this barren mountain, looks like they found a rabbit's nest by luck, hehe… Whatever, who cares? Because of boss laying low these days, I haven't been able to have a good meal in a while,"

"Good, save a portion for us like always and don't forget to check them before cooking," The tall man said with a grin.

The fat man smiled, he was salivating just by thinking about eating meat tonight.

He first checked the rabbits, but didn't find anything wrong with them, he quickly processed them and mixed them in the food.

While they were doing it, the silhouette of Lady Ghost came out from the drunken man's body and flew away into the distance.

Soon she came back to Kale and nodded, she then went back into the pearl.

'I hope they have a good meal,' Kale smirked, he checked the time in his watch then leaned back on the trunk again.

He didn't bring his phone with him so that his locating remains active at the inn all along.

Kale didn't doubt that Riyan or GHO would keep a watch on him until something big happens, but it was always good to keep an alibi just in case.

As for the rabbits he sent, he wasn't grateful enough to send a free meal to the bandits, if someone asks him that those rabbits were normal? Of course, they weren't! But can those bandits find it? If they could, then Kale won't dare call himself an expert of poison due to pure embarrassment.

Time passed, it was dinner time, due to the news of meat getting served, the bandits were very enthusiastic about the meal.

"Fukk It's meat, there is finally meat in food!"

"Haha… It's a gift from heavens, my late-night dream came true, it is real meat,"

"Hey, why there are only two pieces in my bowl? Everyone said they have three,"

"You illustrate fool, it is three, one, two then three, understood?"

"…"

"By the way, didn't rumours say there were three rabbits? The quantity of meat still looks small, fatty did you save a big portion for yourself?"

"Dammit! I was the one who cooked and you are blaming me? Give me back the bowl, there is no meal for you,"

"Haha… Brother, I was joking, why do you care about this small man, it was what that snitcher told me, I am fine with this much,"

"Humph, you better be,"

All the bandits were like hungry wolfs, gobbling up their meal like there was no tomorrow, as for the missing person who sent the meal, a few were worried about him but if those hungry bandits had to choose between food and a brother they don't have to think much before choosing food. They decided to go check on him after the meal.

No one tried to wake up the drunken bandit, they reached a tactic understanding and ignored him, who would want to share food when it wasn't enough to fill their bellies in the first place.

They love to snatch and not to share!

Kale fully knew their nature, that's why he formed that plan.